Posts by kc0arf

Hello,

There will be a signal loss in every jump of the path. Yes, bad cables add to the problem, but so does bad grounding and stray electromagnetic fields. You could have a powerline in the wall causing the problem. I will also bet that the higher the resolution, the greater the distortion.

Any jumper / switch / connector will add to the loss of a signal. IN the RF (radio) world, a simple double-female barrel connector to splice coax together can cause 50 percent signal loss. The loss is because of the signal changing materials to travel over. Electricity travels in the form of electrons around the OUTSIDE of the wire (but inside the insulation).

Also, you mention a work environment. Lots of servers. Fans. Wires. There is a lot of Radio Frequency emitions in there, causing interference. Don't believe me? Take a cheap AM Transister pocket radio, and tune it to a non-station (a place where you hear some static, and not a station). Move it around your area, and hear where the buzzes are coming from. That is an energy wave causing a problem.

60 Hz refresh rates are very close to AC power cycles, thus will cause interference. First thing I do is change the rate to something greater, such as 72 - 75.

If clarity is very important, you may wish to consider directly using one computer as a master view station, and then use remote control programs such as …

Hello,

Any switch / additions made to the monitor cable will cause a degration. That is because you lose signal every time you make a connection. In the RF world, adding a double-barrel-female connector to splice two coax cables together can knock the signal down 50 percent!

You do not mention what other computers you are trying to remote control. I am in a similar situation... and instead of a KVM switch, I use VNC to have one master computer remote control the rest of them. SO, the Linux box remote controls the Windows Server, and the Mac Server and a third computer. I wish that VNC would remote a Novell Server, but with other tools, I can manage that thing.

Christian

Hello,

I would add a UPS to the outside of the computer system, and have it clean the power, and keep it nice on the outside. Plus, make sure it is grounded too! No cheapo adapters into the wall socket.

Sometimes at night I hear mine kick in for a few moments here and there. I am in an older house, and I guess I have small brownouts for moments. I would rather have the UPS take the hit (which it is designed to do) than have my hardware take it, and potentially scramble all the data.

Christian

Christian

Hello,

You should consider getting your computer into the 256 MB range for RAM, or if you can, 512 MB. At 128, your hard drive is doing a lot of swapping, making performance suffer. Unless you are looking at a new computer soon, I would get more RAM.

Christian

Hello,

You might want to consider something other than LinkSys. Tests have shown that they are leaky in the RF world, meaning if you have a radio near them, the darn switch interfears with the radio. It is a quality control / sheilding problem.

I would look for a switch that also has an uplink port right on it, just in case you need it for later use. And if you can, plug it into a UPS to minimize / eliminate power hiccup problems.

Christian

Hello,

Welcome to RedHat! I hope you enjoy the switch.

Generally, to install a package, you have to be logged in as root (you are not using the root account for everything, are you? If you are, bad move, and ask how to make a normal user!)

General format for the package installer under Red Hat is:

rpm -i packagename

If you are trying to update a package, you may need:

rpm -i --upgrade packagename

If you have a bunch of dependancy failures, you need to check out apt-get, but that is a different lesson.

To answer your second question, to change Desktops, go to your Redhat menu, then System Tools --> More System Tools --> Desktop Switcher Tool.

I think you are going to find out that GNOME is better than KDE, but I encourage you to form your own opinion.

Take care, and let us know!

Christian

Hi.

That's the problem with not specifying the operating system you are compiling under. My linux box had no problem with it.

Enjoy,

Christian

Hello,

Did you put in the card after the Suse install? It is possible that hooks from the old card are causing a problem. I am not a Suse guy, but to me it sounds like the system is looking for the other device. You might have to swap cards again, and remove the card properly.

If you can get to the logs, you might have a better chance of understanding the problems.

Good Luck,

Christian

Hello Patricia,

I agree that a format is in order. Yes, there are tools such as partition magic that will manage things while keeping your data secure, but you are then placing your faith in a tool and your data. I would save the data off, and then re-partition.

I hope that you have at least 10 GB on your hard drive.

I won't be able to offer step-by-step instructions, but can give you a good idea of what to look for.

Reboot the computer with your Windows 2000 disk. When it comes to selecting where to install Windows 2K, do not use the entire hard disk. Partition it down, so that you give windows a comfortable amount, but not squeezing your Linux "side". Minimum hard drive IMO is 10 GB, where you can give 5 to Win and 5 to Linux. If you have a 20 GB, give 10 to Win, and 10 to Linux. 40 GB? Give 25 to Win and 15 to Linux. You get the idea. Windows programs tend to be larger, and you most likely have a lot of software on the shelf waiting.

Install Windows, and go through the motions. When it is all stable, you can go into the Computer Management tool, and run the disk administrator, and you will see that your hard drive is so big, and that the Windows partition is only using part of it.

Don't forget your patches!

Reboot with your …

Hello,

I would too suggest that it is DNS related. But, unless your new provider is blocking materials on port 53, or the old DNS provider filters incoming requests, the DNS should still work. I run an open DNS on a cable modem, my Grandma who uses dialup across town uses it because her Windows setup refuses to grab DNS from her ISP. Oh well.

But, there was something else you said:

All three computers are having this same problem. I've tried pinging the other computers in my system, and sometimes it works, other times it doesn't.

This indicates a problem that is not DNS, unless you have an internal DNS server, and have assigned names to them. This is something else. I wonder if there is something wrong with the NPGear Router. I wonder if your new location has power issues. Don't laugh -- minor power hiccups that are fine to lightbulbs will kill off a computer connection, or cause an issue on the switch. You might want to consider a UPS to eliminate those risks.

What would I do?

I would find some external network address to ping, and I would ping it with a packet sniffer installed. Find out what the packets are doing. This step is beyond the beginner though, but it might give you some ideas.

Good Luck,

Christian

Hello,

I agree with Tek's response, but would add that you need to enable filesharing on the computers, and usually make an account on them with the proper access permissions to make the shares happen. Wireless technology will allow the files to move around just fine, but unless you file sharing enabled, and an account with permissions, you might not get the results you expect.

You might also find it handy to designate one of those computers as your main fileserver. That way, you have all your documents in one area, and can simplify your backup strategy. Having different versions of files across multiple computers can cause problems down the road.

Christian

Hello,

Have you found something besides a Maxtor? I have used them in Linux no problem. Also worked with Quantum and Western Digital.

Let us know.

Christian

Hello,

Can you please tell us a little bit about your setup? Is this a second hard drive, or your primary one? Any partitions? Any data on this drive that needs to be saved off?

When you format, the permissions should be cleared. But if you are referring to the permissions button in Disk Utility, that is a different concept.

Would like to hear more,

Christian

Hi,

Yup, a KVM would do it. I was under the impression the computer was on the other side of the room or something. Yeah should have thought about it. Nice suggestion. I have everything here running VNC, and use the one monitor on the Linux box to drive everything.

Christian

Hello,

I am not aware of a "partition magic" for the Macintosh, and to be honest, I prefer to use traditional partition and formatting tools than try to convert/transform a partition. So yes, you should save off your data (on another device such as burn CD-ROMS).

Alex is correct that you can use OS 9 or OS X tools for partitioning. Earlier tools, such as those for OS 8 and 7, required Apple ROMS on the hard drive, meaning that third party devices would not be recognized.

You will need to boot from a CD-ROM with OS 9 (if possible your machine) or OS X. If you use OS 9, then you can find them on the CD-ROM in the Utilities folder. If on OS X, boot to where you see the Welcome to OS X screen, and it starts to talk about installing. Click on the blue Apple in the corner, and locate the Disk Utility. You can then partition the disk before re-installing.

Christian

Hello,

Looks like it's time to contact the manufacture and have the drive swapped. The Firewire will be much faster (assuming the drive mechanism can keep up) than the USB package is.

Take care, and hope all is well.

Christian

Steve,

If you are dialing up, then what we are doing is going to be fine. If you use a cable modem and need to disconnect the 3.1 box back and forth, that will not work.

If you want to turn off your XP box, and then turn it back on again, you will need some way to tell the 3.1 box to reconnect to it. This means remote control, or getting a monitor back on that 3.1 box and walking up to the machine. See, the file share links will be broken when the XP box is powered off, resulting in the need to re-connect the shares when you wish to use them again.

Christian

Hello,

Yep, 10.x.y.z is a protected subnet. My router is 10.10.1.1, and subnet mask is 255.0.0.0 The router will accept packets from 10.10.1.x, 10.10.2.x, 10.10.3.x and so forth. Can even do a 10.20.1.x and 10.30.1.x because of the subnetting flexibility.

I do not think that you can get a 192.168.1.1 device to catch a packet from 192.168.4.x because of the subnet mask and the limit of hosts on that network.

Remember, a 192.168.1.x/24 network will only have 253 possible hosts (because .0 refers to the whole network, and .255 is the mask).

All the companies that I have done work for had an internal 10.x network. Matter of fact, one that my sister works at has 10.x and my internal network was 10.x and her VPN would not work because the routing thought that her Citrix servers were located inside of my parent's house. I had to re-do the parents network to 192.x.y.z so that the VPN would route packets through the firewall properly, and stop looking for hospital citrix servers near my parents furnace.

Christian

Hello,

Various cards have worked for me under R.H.9. Make sure your pcmcia daemon is running, and also have kudzu identify the card for you.

It might take a little more for you to get it working. Maybe I just lucked out.

Christian

Hello,

I hope you are able to get that working. I have not upgraded to Firewire technology, so don't know everything about it. I am still working with SCSI and USB, although I think I have left serial behind.

Take care, and let us know.

Christian

Hello Nate,

What isn't working with VLC?

Christian

Hello,

A Hardware Interrupt is a "message" that the hardware will give the CPU saying that attention is needed somewhere else. For example, if your CPU is adding some numbers together, and something comes in on the serial port (such as a modem connection), the port will send an interrupt to the CPU, and ask it to read the data sitting in the buffer. Keyboards, mice, even the video cards have interrupts.

I think that you have an OS issue, as it is happening globally, and you are losing the battle with it. Because you mention that your computer is quite fast running one program, I am going to believe your hardware and RAM are alright.

If I were you, I would save off my data, and re-install from ground zero. As complex as windows is, you could spend the better part of another month trying to find it. Start clean.

Christian

Hello,

Is this happening exclusively in IE, or if you have Mozilla / Netscape installed, does it also happen there too?

Christian

Hello,

IF this computer that you have SAMBA installed on is going to be part of the internet, and if this computer is the firewall, then I would strongly suggest that you firewall out the Microsoft ports, before someone tries to attach to your machine via the internet. I would also firewall out any OUTBOUND messages that SAMBA will try to make so that your computer doesn't show up on someone's Network Neighborhood.

Inside IPTABLES:

## Explicit drops of Samba ports
$IPTABLES -A tcp_packets -p TCP -s 0/0 --dport 139 -j DROP
$IPTABLES -A tcp_packets -p TCP -s 0/0 --dport 445 -j DROP
$IPTABLES -A udpin_packets -p UDP -s 0/0 --dport 139 -j DROP
$IPTABLES -A udpin_packets -p UDP -s 0/0 --dport 445 -j DROP

(I have a rule called tcp_packets and udpin_packets. You will have to modify that to fit your IPTABLES firewall. If you are using something else to firewall, take the port numbers and work with it)

# Rule Test to drop Microsoft packets outbound from server.
# Want to stop Samba Advertising
$IPTABLES -A OUTPUT -p TCP -o $INET_IFACE --dport 139 -j DROP
$IPTABLES -A OUTPUT -p TCP -o $INET_IFACE --dport 445 -j DROP
$IPTABLES -A OUTPUT -p TCP -o $INET_IFACE --dport 32875 -j DROP
$IPTABLES -A OUTPUT -p UDP -o $INET_IFACE --source-port 32875 -j DROP
$IPTABLES -A OUTPUT -p UDP -o $INET_IFACE --dport 137 -j DROP

If anyone needs …

Hello,

For those of you interested in running Linux on Mac hardware, look at www.yellowdoglinux.com for a RedHat port, or if you have an older PowerMac with NuBus slots, you can try mklinux available from Apple.

While OS X works well, it is too much for the 7100 - 8100 class machines. YDL will not work with these machines -- YDL would like to see a G3 or better.

Christian

Hello,

Using whois for comcast.net, I see that the DNS servers are:

DNS01.JDC01.PA.COMCAST.NET 68.87.96.3
DNS02.JDC01.PA.COMCAST.NET 68.87.96.4

1) Ping these two IP numbers shown above. Do you get an answer back?

2) If so, plug these two DNS numbers into your Windows. Restart the computer. Can you still ping them? Can you resolve normal names then?

Let us know.

Christian

Hello,

Couple things to consider:

1) FTP can be compromised. Passwords are sent in the clear. While it is not likely, this could cause a problem.

2) Dialup can move about 14 MB per hour. 1024 MB / 14 = a lot of time. Dialup will not do it for you. Hell, downloading a CD-ROM over a good cable modem connection takes a good 45 - 60 minutes.

3) Aside from home movies that you make on your own, one has to wonder what in the world you are doing with so much data. If you were to get a cable modem, and the cable company was monitoring their systems, they WOULD notice you moving that data on a regular basis, and may knock on your door. (I know it is possible -- I monitor the data flow on my networks, and have knocked on a few desks already)

4) I think your best bet is going to be cutting DVDs and mailing them to him. Or if one of you have a laptop, go to the other fella's place, and eat some pizza while moving the data on a local network.

Christian

Hi,

Can you ping the DNS servers that you are specifying? For example, if DNS.MYDOMAIN.COM = 123.123.123.2, are you able to ping that address?

Christian

Hello,

I would plug it in, and go into the System Profiler, and see if the Powerbook G4 sees it. IF so, great. If not, then there may be a problem.

If the System Profiler correctly identifies it, then I wonder if there is a security issue on the device. But I think the device should be "mounted" first, before any such warning is displayed.

Also check to see if the G4 is up to date on system software.

Christian

Hello,

Go into the System Preferences, and look under Network. Find where you configured the modem, and click on the PPP Options. Check the box to Dial connection automatically when you need to.

I wouldn't change it though. Why? Because then every little thing that requires the internet will cause the computer to dial out. There might also be the danger that once you close the program that caused the dial-out, the computer might "hang up". It boils down to a personal preference.

Firefox is cool. They just upgraded it to .9

As for your iMail setup, I use Eudora, and do not have any advice for you there.

Christian

Hello,

I have setup systems where each subnet receives their own NIC in the server. If you have a router in there, I am sure you can get it all to work for you. Or, if you would re-consider your scheme, so that you use a 10.x.y.z network, you can then get it to work properly, because the octals in the subnets allow for more network possibilities than a class-c network.

What kind of clients are you talking about? If they are Win95 machines going to a NT server, you are going to need WINS in there somewhere. If they are over pure IP, then you could be OK.

Please expand on this a bit more, and if you can, draw a little .jpg diagram of what we are looking at.

Christian

Hello Steven,

I am crunching and will reply soon.

Christian

Hello,

Go into your Safari preferences, and look at your Autofill settings. I have all of mine unchecked. You might also have to clear your history and cache settings.

Good Luck.

Christian

Hello,

Thank you for posting what you found. Do appreciate it.

Christian

Hello,

You could make a backup of the *.ini files, and then edit them, yes. If something blows up, go back to the backup and restore them. But I am wondering if there are other corruptions on that computer.

Christian

Hello,

NT will work with IDE hard drives, but before SP3 (I think it was), it will only recognize smaller hard drives and/or partitions.

Gut feeling is that you found a nice large 20 GB hard drive, and are trying to use a single partition. That is not the proper way to setup a computer.

Try making your C: something like 8 GB, and deal with the rest later, after you have all of the service packs in place. You can then use Disk Administrator to make another partition, or you can try your luck with Partition Magic. Personally, I would make a C: in the 4 - 8 GB Range, and then put your Applications on a second partition, and all your data on a third partition.

Christian

Hello,

There are some ways to do this.

For CPU monitoring (and network), you can look into a package called mrtg that can be setup to monitor CPU processes, and graph it out. It will require you to setup snmpd and other things in order to get it to function properly.

For code, and how much CPU you use, check out your compiler to see if it supports profiling. I did that for COBOL code on a VAX/VMS, and for C++ on my Macintosh. Found out what functions used the most CPU time, and how long it took to do them. I liked profiling sorts, and comparing quicksort vs. bubble sort and the like.

Now, I know it isn't cross-platform, but the profiling might be the most efficient and non-skewing of the techniques. Why? because it is built into the compiler environment, and I am sure that the program coders took that into account.

Christian

Hello,

Great idea on the Pascal! It is what I learned first. I do not see a lot of environments out there for it though.

Have to see if gcc will compile it.

Christian

Hello thedawn,

Hmm. Your computer is down too. Not good. It sounds like you are in an install process, and the computer is crashing. That hints that the CD-ROM is being read, and that your hard drive is working, because it is writing at least some of the data.

I would boot with the CD's, and then before you start installing, go to the BlueApple (in the left corner), and run the disk utility. Delete and reformat your hard drive. Start it from scratch.

If that doesn't work, it might be bad media (bad cd-roms).

Let us know.

Christian

Hello,

I would strongly suggest that you look into C++ to handle this project. Traditional C has a number of more difficult processes that C++ has made easier.

I would also look into developing your program on a Linux computer. The Microsoft Tools will be expensive for what you are looking to do, plus you probably don't need the big front-end interface. What kind of computer were you planning on working with?

Christian

Hello,

It should be. Why? Because you can program the second router to work with the first one via IP information. The IP packets won't distinguish between a wire and an antenna.

You will most likely need to program the device via a wire cable to a computer, and you will have to set the IP number of the wan side to be in the same subnet as the first one. You might have to use the IP number of the first as the gateway number on the second.

Now, I am not certain how to configure a roaming device to switch from one to the other as you walk out of range of the first one. That requires some study on my part.

Christian

Hello,

I hope you created a second user, and am not running around as root doing everything. If you are, it is time to slow down, and start using a normal user account instead of the God account.

If you were to catch a bug, or malicious program, and you are running root, you can torpedo your box. One of the big features of Linux security is NOT to run normal programs as root.

IN the windows world, you almost always need to be a member of the Administrators group in order to do things. Not the case in Linux.

Christian

Hello,

This may be way-overboard, but I would love to see a virtual environment of a router-network.

Have a program that when launched sets up an environment. Use a couple shapes for routers, and have abilities to program in IP numbers and perhaps other protocols. Have it accept the subnet masks and other things... awareness of ports.

Use this environment to prototype network installations, and program Cisco routers. Have it visual to show if traffic flows between the networks or not. Be able to close ports and change subnets, and see if the traffic stops, or changes directions. Have it detect if there are loops in the network.

This is a way advanced program thing, but it would be quite helpful, and would be a long project that you could do something with. I would have it work on Linux, so that you can reach a lot of people with little OS cost.

Christian

Hello,

I was able to get

http://www.abc.net.au/streaming/newsradio.asx

Working by using a program called VLC. I found the Mac OS X version at:

http://www.videolan.org/

And then hit the VLC media player button where it will allow you to choose which player you need.

I was listening to australian audio for a good 10 minutes.

Let us know,

Christian

Hello Steven,

I am in the process of building a Win 3.1 environment. I found someone with disks, and my Mac has SoftWindows on it, so I can emulate what we are trying to do. It is amazing when old college images still work!

To get you started though, here we go:

1) I am assuming that your XP machine has one network card installed, and that it is not connected to the internet. If you are thinking of disconnecting the Win 3.1 box and connecting to the internet and going back and forth, this will not work, and it is a bad idea.

2) We need to make a user account on your XP machine to use. Go to Start --> Run, and type in "compmgmt.msc" You will open up the computer management control panel. Find the Users and Groups folder, and make a new user. You will need to be using the right mouse button to do some of this. Assign a password for your new user. Add them to the Users group. DO NOT MAKE THEM AN ADMIN.

3) Go to your hard drive, and make a folder. If you have a C: and a D: (and D: is not a cd-rom), make that folder on the D:. Call it something descriptive, such as ShareWin31. Then, right-click on it, and set the security on it so that the user you made in step 2 has authority to write to that folder.

…

Hello,

Dani, our System Administrator, has created a new forum called Mac Tips and Tricks. I'd love to write about a number of things concerning the Macintosh, but being at the administrator level for so many years, I may be a bit out of touch on what new people would like to read about.

I am thinking on writing about:

OS 9 --> X conversions
Partitioning and why it is smart
Networking peer to peer and to a server
Working with other Operating Systems
Classic and OS X
Security
General FAQ

Please post to this thread what you would like to see covered. Starting June 20, I will pick up my pen and begin writing. :) Of course, if other members would like to author a topic, by all means go for it!

Thanks a bundle,

Christian

Hello,

OS X will run fine on it. I am running X on a 333 MHz computer with 394 GB. The larger questions are:

1) Do you have OS X versions of your software that you use daily? Yes, the standard army of email readers, web browsers, FTP, and newsreaders are available. There is also a nice free text editor called TextEdit that will work for simple word processing.

2) New applications are available for a cost: Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator/Acrobat, Microsoft Office.

3) Your Mac OS 9 applications will work in an emulated mode called "Classic". Most things will work there, but not everything.

4) Do you have a plan? Are you thinking of reformatting / re-partitioning your hard drive?

I always break hard drives into smaller partitions to protect them from user and from the system. While partitioning will not save you from a hard drive failure, it can save your bacon if you need to re-install the OS, and have the data on a different partition.

I'll stop here... let us know which direction you would like to go. Whatever the case, if you are happy and satisfied with 9.2, there is nothing wrong with you staying there for the next 20 or so years. I think the Mac OS 9 system clock will ahve problems after the year 2032 or something like that.

Christian

Hello,

Have a sample site? I'd like to give it a shot from here. If it is confidential, message me off the board please.

Christian

Hello,

Unfortunately, my Pascal things are in another city. Grr. What happens if you input a letter? Does the program substitute the ASCII value of the letter instead? Hmm. I am wondering if you should accept a string, and then convert it to numeric. I have to see if that function is even available in Pascal.

Wow, I am out of date here.

Christian

Hello,

What version of OS X are you running on your eMac? Did you install the software that should have come with your digital camera?

I remember in an older day that my Powermac G3 would not accept memory cards in the PCMCIA slot under OS X, but they worked great under OS 9. I would verify that the software is properly installed.

I have not tried USB Pen drives on an e-Mac (or on any Mac for that matter). Music should not be a problem... but it could be the media that they are played on. I have had better luck with verbatim CD-ROMS and have had HORRIBLE success with Maxell's. My truck's audio player will not play any homemade Maxell, yet the Verbatim's work just fine.

Good Luck,

Christian